As promised: something wholesome to make up for That One Chapter! Osten & Josie friendship is so much fun; I could read a whole fic about this dynamic duo.

Osten sauntered into Josie's room, leather-bound notebook in hand. "I'm here to return this."

Josie gasped and snatched it back. "My diary! I've been looking for this all week! Where did you find it?"

"Your desk. I've been wanting to read it for a while. Don't worry; I'm not going to tell anyone about your crush on Ahren—everyone who cares already knows. I'm much more interested in your plan for signing your brother up for the Selection without his consent," Osten said pointedly.

Josie gasped. "So you stole my diary and you're going to blackmail me?"

"Do you really think I'd blackmail you?" Osten asked indignantly. "I want to help! Applying on Kile's behalf is a good idea, but it's statistically unlikely he'll get picked. The two of us could, you know, adjust the odds."

Josie frowned. "What if I don't want to adjust the odds?"

"Fine, then I'll blackmail you. Come on; it'll be fun!"

Reluctantly, not really having a choice, Josie agreed.

§

"They've already picked the names for the Selection," Osten said in a low voice. They were lurking just outside Lady Brice's office. "We just have to replace whoever they chose for Angeles with Kile."

Josie frowned. "Does that mean we have to open all the other applications to find the one I made for Kile? There were thousands!"

"Isn't it crazy, the amount of guys that wanna marry my sister? You can tell they've never actually spent any time around her. I just filled out a new one." Osten showed Josie his handiwork. The application was a little crumpled from being stashed in his pocket, but hopefully no one would notice. "They needed a picture, so I scanned his passport."

Josie looked dubious. "You filled it out? You don't know anything about Kile."

"I just made stuff up." A lot of the information, like Kile's birthday, was actually on the passport Osten had conveniently already stolen, but there had been an essay portion he completely fabricated. "It's fine. Follow me!"

Osten led the way, sneaking inside. Josie followed more hesitantly, but there was nothing to worry about: the office was empty, the Selection envelopes stacked on the desk and labeled in Lady Brice's neat handwriting. Osten did his best to copy that neat handwriting and replaced the original Angeles envelope with the one he'd made for Kile. Easy.

§

Osten could barely contain his glee. Any minute now, Eadlyn was going to read Kile's name live on the Report. This was his best trick yet! It was just unfortunate Eadlyn would immediately suspect him, but he'd taken measures to cover his tracks: disguising his handwriting on the application, of course, having Josie vouch that he was in the stables all afternoon, and, since they arrived at the studio, he'd tied Kaden and Ahren's shoelaces together. That last part may not have been necessary, but really, it would have been more incriminating if he behaved himself all evening.

He craned his neck to find Josie in the crowd. She tried to act like she was above pranks and mischief, but he knew she was actually just as excited as he was. There she was in the front row, grinning, next to her blissfully ignorant brother, Eadlyn's soon-to-be-suitor.

Eadlyn opened the final envelope. "And from Angeles…" Her voice faltered. Osten snickered but tried to play it off as a cough. Fortunately, Eadlyn didn't seem to notice, too baffled by her worst enemy's apparent crush on her. Eventually, she managed to say the name out loud. "Kile Woodwork."

There was a thunk. An equally baffled Kile dropped his book. Josie was beaming, not at all subtle about her glee; it was a good thing Eadlyn only had eyes for her new boyfriend, sending a death glare to the front row that would've withered most men. Osten almost squealed. Oh, this was going to be good.

§

Over the course of the next week, Osten managed to convince both Eadlyn and Kile that he had nothing to do with Kile's name being drawn. He mostly did this by blaming Kile's mom, and the unhappy couple accepted that answer because Miss Marlee absolutely would've pulled the same stunt if she'd thought of it. Still, Osten thought it would be best not to meddle in his sister's love life anymore, although he changed his mind when Josie banged on his door a couple nights later. "Osten! Let me in! They're going on a date!"

Osten let her in. "Kile and Eadlyn? How do you know?"

"I was listening at her door. They're heading to the garden! Let's go!"

Pleased that the student had become the master, Osten easily discarded his intention of not meddling. Making use of the secret passageways, they arrived in the garden well before Kile and Eadlyn and climbed a particularly dense sycamore to stay out of sight. There was some pushing, shoving, and routine bickering over the spot with the best view, but the arguing ceased as soon as Kile and Eadlyn stepped through the gate.

"Look at them! They're so in love!" Josie whispered excitedly.

Osten didn't see it. "They don't look like they're in love. They look like they're arguing. Like usual."

He could faintly hear something impolite about Kile's taste in ties and Eadlyn's obsession with tiaras—both reasonable criticisms, Osten thought, and both consistent with the way they usually talked to each other. Contradicting that, they were holding hands and not looking terribly unhappy about it.

"Why would they bother going on a date if they weren't in love? She could've kicked him out right away, if she really hated him," Josie reasoned.

Osten could come up with plenty of reasons Eadlyn might have kept Kile in the Selection that didn't involve them having actual feelings for each other, but before he could start listing them off, his point was disproven in real time by Kile pulling Eadlyn in for a kiss, and not just a peck on the cheek, either. It looked serious. Osten's eyes widened. Josie promptly fell out of the sycamore tree and into a hedge. Fortunately, Kile and Eadlyn were too busy slobbering all over each other to notice the following thump and whimper. Hopefully Josie was alright.

Disgusted as he was, Osten couldn't look away. The whole point of putting Kile in the Selection was that he and Eadlyn would both hate it, but it seemed he may have been wrong about that. Maybe they did like each other.

If not, well, Osten was going to make sure of it.

§

"What now?" Josie complained, slamming her diary shut. Osten had gotten way too comfortable barging into her room.

"Our siblings haven't been on a date in a while," Osten observed. "Wanna change that?"

"How would we do that?" Josie asked dubiously. At least she wasn't morally opposed to their meddling anymore, although, doubting Osten's capacity for mischief was almost as egregious of a crime.

Osten had already stolen a sheet of Eadlyn's stationery; he slapped it on the table dramatically. "We'll write them each a note inviting them to dinner."

"That'll never work!"

There were some issues with the plan, yes, but Osten shrugged them off. "At the very least, it'll get them talking to each other, right? We might as well try it."

She relented. "Fine, but you have to do Kile's handwriting."

"That's okay. I'm really good at it." He picked up a pen and started to write. "Dear Princess Eadlyn—wait, do they have pet names for each other?"

"Don't use her title! This is a love note! Call her royal pain in the ass instead," Josie suggested helpfully.

"Good idea." Osten wrote that down. "I'll have them meet in the private dining room on the fourth floor. Then we can listen in from the secret passage."

"We're going to spy on them?!" she objected. "What if it gets…you know…intimate."

"At dinner? They wouldn't."

"Love makes people do crazy things," Josie said wisely. Like she would know.

"If that happens, we leave through the passage."

She looked over his shoulder. "Wait, why are you signing it your friend, Kile? Say love! Obviously they're in love!"

"It's way too early to say love!" Osten insisted.

"Write it! Love, Kile!"

They bickered all the way through the second note too. It was remarkable how many ways they could disagree over a few simple words, but they eventually came up with two invitations they mostly agreed on and sent them out. At seven o'clock sharp, Osten and Josie hid in the secret passage on the fourth floor. Aside from the faint outline of the door, there was no light in there. It was creepy and cramped, but the discomfort was worth it when they heard two sets of footsteps entering the dining room. Kile and Eadlyn were already talking to each other. Unfortunately, it didn't sound like they were being very nice. "What are you talking about? You invited me!" Kile insisted.

"I did not! You invited me!" Eadlyn argued. "I got a note from you this afternoon!"

"I didn't send you any note!"

"I have it right here!"

Osten frowned. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but he was pretty sure Josie was giving him the I-told-you-this-was-a-bad-idea glare. "Just trust me!" he whispered, even though he was rapidly losing faith in his own plan. He'd counted on Eadlyn's pettiness, but he hadn't accounted for Kile being equally stubborn. If they couldn't get past who invited who, this could end right here.

Osten winced as he heard a sheet of paper unfolding. "See! Right here!" Eadlyn insisted, presumably waving the forged note in Kile's face.

"I didn't write that," Kile stated. Osten wanted to bang his head against the wall. Why couldn't one of them just take credit for what was obviously a good idea? "That's not my handwriting at all."

"That's…oh." Then Eadlyn said something Osten had never heard her say. "You're right. You got a note too, you said?"

Josie smacked Osten on the head as quietly as possible.

More paper rustling. Osten shifted uncomfortably; this was not good. "The writing's the same," Kile declared. Apparently Osten's pained effort to disguise his penmanship had not paid off. "Eady, someone tricked us."

This time, Josie did not smack Osten quietly enough. The room went dead silent before Eadlyn suspiciously called, "Hello…?"

Instantly, Osten knew that she knew. "Run!" he hissed to Josie, pushing her further into the passage, not that it would do them any good. Eadlyn caught him before long and hauled him to their dad's office.

Once everyone stopped yelling at him—Osten confessed to everything but still ended up in a lot of trouble for committing so many different types of fraud—he decided he was done meddling in his sister's love life. It was fun, and it was obviously working, based on the impressive united front Kile and Eadlyn put up while yelling at him, but the price was too great. Fortunately, Kile and Eadlyn soon fell in love on their own.

That didn't mean Osten was done matchmaking entirely, mind you. Actually, he though matchmaking was pretty fun, and he intended to keep at it. Josie was no longer part of the team, though, since she immediately sold Osten out to keep herself out of trouble, but it wasn't like Osten actually needed her help.

She would be a better victim than teammate. When Osten stole her diary for the second time, there were some very interesting entries about her and Kaden…